Consulting giant Deloitte & Touche has signed a preliminary agreement to lease 180,000 square feet at Tishman Speyer’s 555 Mission St., a deal that would fill up most of the remaining empty space in San Francisco’s newest office tower.

Under the 15-year agreement Deloitte would occupy 10 floors throughout the middle and upper levels of the building. Landlord Tishman Speyer would pony up most of a $12 million cash “kill fee” Deloitte must pay to terminate its existing lease at 50 Fremont St., which extends through November 2015, according to sources familiar with the negotiations. The lease is not finalized, but both parties involved have agreed to the terms. The lease would represent a downsizing for Deloitte, which in 2004 leased 285,000 square feet at 50 Fremont St.

In a statement, Deloitte said the company is “conducting preliminary research on the San Francisco commercial real estate market prior to the expiration of our current lease. No decisions have been made and no deals have been signed.”

A Tishman Speyer executive who handles leasing for the 549,000-square-foot building did not return calls seeking comment.

“It will be a bold move if Tishman pulls it off, but a deal is never done until it’s done,” said a broker familiar with the negotiations.

The 33-story green glass tower at 555 Mission, designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates and Heller Manus Architects, is the first financial district office tower completed since 2002 when Hines opened the JPMorgan Chase building at 560 Mission St. In the year before the building opened in September of 2008, Tishman landed a number of strong credit tenants, including law firms DLA Piper and Gibson Dunn, as well as Sequoia Capital, the Sand Hill Road venture capital group, which ended up subleasing the space to law firm Novak Druce + Quigg. Leasing slowed down considerably after the recession hit, although Tishman Speyer has still landed smaller deals with Silicon Valley Bank, CNA Insurance, the Bay Area Council and others. The Deloitte deal would bring the building up to about 85 percent leased.

Deloitte’s likely move would be a blow to 50 Fremont owner TIAA-CREF as well as for Hines, which manages the property for the owner. After Deloitte, the second largest tenant at 50 Fremont St. is law firm Pillsbury Winthrop, which is currently in the market for 140,000 to 160,000 square feet. If Pillsbury decides to move as well, the 746,000-square-foot 50 Fremont would be left with a huge amount of space to fill at a time when the office leasing market is just starting to recover from the recession.

Margaret Duskin, a managing director with Cushman & Wakefield, said the 555 Mission deal would make sense for the building ownership, despite the expensive cancellation fee.

“This could work out very well for the developer and investors in 555 Mission St. because there are not that many tenants in the market who can fill up that kind of space,” said Duskin.

Cancellation rights are not popular among landlords and are typically put in place when tenants have leverage. “When you have these cancellation rights the tenants can move and have somebody pay the fee or use it as a weapon to lower existing rent,” said Duskin.

Deloitte is one of the largest professional services organizations in the world and one of the Big Four auditors, along with PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young and KPMG. Deloitte recently renewed its 150,000-square-foot lease at 225 W. Santa Clara St. in downtown San Jose.

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